


To Stand Before the Council

by Raven_Knight



Category: Star Wars, Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Family, Family Feels, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Initiate Depa Billaba, Jedi Initiates, Jedi Training, Master & Padawan Relationship(s), Protective Mace Windu, Set before Episode I, Yoda still treating Mace like a Padawan, child character, jedi order, platonic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-01
Updated: 2017-11-01
Packaged: 2019-01-27 17:54:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12587400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raven_Knight/pseuds/Raven_Knight
Summary: The Masters and Knights of the Jedi Order don't only observe an Initiate's lightsaber skills before they choose a Padawan. They are sometimes invited to watch other events like class presentations. When the Master she'd hoped to see watching her class does not show up, Initiate Depa Billaba takes matters into her own hands to speak to the Jedi Master she most admires. Even if it means standing in front of the entire High Council to do it.This is the story of how Mace Windu and Depa Billaba became Master and Padawan.





	To Stand Before the Council

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars. This piece, archived at Archive of Our Own (Ao3), is purely a non-commercial work of fiction from which I am not profiting in any way. This work may not be reproduced, archived, or redistributed by any means and/or in any format without prior written permission from me. Permission may be obtained by contacting me at r4v3n.kn1ght@gmail.com

The hours passed with agonizing slowness for Initiate Depa Billaba in the waiting area just outside of the Jedi High Council chambers. She’d watched Masters come and go with their Padawans, probably being assigned a very exciting mission or something. She’d craned her neck to see Knights, both older and so new to their rank they hadn’t yet grown out their short Padwan hairstyle, stride through the double doors to the center of the audience circle and execute a quick bow before the doors closed and cut off her view. She’d observed as one of the Creche Masters bodily escorted an Initiate older than her into the chamber only to emerge again with the Initiate boy visibly trembling and holding back tears. _He must have done something wrong,_ Depa concluded.

“Initiate Billaba?” the impersonal tone of the protocol droid called from behind the reception desk in the waiting area.

“Yes?” Her voice shook. This would not do. _Calm,_ she reminded herself. _You must be calm when you face the Council._ She had a mission to complete. She could not embarrass herself now. Not after she’d put this much work into getting to this moment.

“The Council will see you now.”

Closing her eyes, Depa inhaled deeply through her nose and held her breath for three seconds. Then, as she exhaled, she opened her eyes and stood from her rather uncomfortable chair. She moistened her lips nervously as she approached the doors to the Council Chamber. They registered her approach and parted at just the right time to allow her to keep her pace. She stepped over the threshhold and dropped her eyes to the floor anxiously, unable to contain that emotion. As dictated by her training, she came to the center of the circular room, turned to face the seniormost member of the entire Jedi Order, Grand-Master Yoda, and tried to bow as she’d seen the Knights do from her seat in the waiting room. She knew, however, that her bow was stiff and a little sloppy and lacked the dignity and grace of a Knight. Before she could mentally berate herself further, someone spoke.

“Where is your Creche Master, Initiate?”

Depa turned her head immediately to her left to stare into the intense gaze of Master Dooku. _He’s so much scarier in here than in the halls,_ she thought, her anxiety spiking again. _Breathe!_ She shouted at herself. _Stay calm!_

“Initiate?” prompted Master Dooku, leaning forward in his seat.

This movement frightened her even more and she stepped away from him before she could stop herself. An instant later, Depa realized her mistake and forced herself back to the center of the circle.

“There’s no need to fear us, Youngling,” a Council member gently said from behind her. “It’s simply unusual for an Initiate to come before us alone like you have.”

Depa swallowed, trying to connect the words in her brain to her vocal cords, but failing and ending up uselessly opening her mouth only to close it again soundlessly.

“Tell us why ask to speak with us you did,” Yoda ordered, but in such a soft and encouraging tone it sounded more like he asked her for a favor than commanded her to speak.

Depa looked directly at Yoda’s wrinkled and kind eyes. She’d known Yoda since she was a toddler and he taught her and her agemates their first lightsaber lessons. He’d chuckled at her as she whined that she couldn’t see the blaster-simulating droid with her blindfold on. _Need your eyes you do not when the Force you have to see._ Among these twelve Council members, Yoda both knew her best and she felt most comfortable around him. She never had a problem talking to him. But she’d never had to talk to him in this room before and that made all the difference. “I—” She choked on her next word. She cleared her throat loudly, the sound echoing in the quiet room, befor eshe tried again to answer. “Masters, I was just—” She couldn’t look at Yoda anymore when she was failing so badly at staying calm and answering a simple question.

She heard a frustrated sigh from someone to her left. Her cheeks warmed in embarrassment. _I’m making a fool of myself,_ she chastised herself. _Just say it and leave!_

“Is it a problem with another Initiate?” asked one of the female Masters slightly in front of her and to the right of Yoda’s chair.

Gratefully understanding that the Master phrased it so that she could answer yes or no wordlessly, Depa shook her head.

“Something going badly in one of your lessons?”

Depa somehow managed to say, “No, Masters,” that time.

Then, the man who sat immediately to Yoda’s left spoke for the first time, his voice light with friendliness and encouragement. “Whatever it is, Youngling, you’ve come all this way to us alone from the Creche to tell us about it.” Then, he grew serious. “Find your center,” he instructed. “Think of what led you here.” Depa obeyed. She released her breath shakily and focused on his instructions, using her breathing to find her emotional center and physical peace. “Good,” he said softly. “Now, clear your mind.” Depa tried her hardest to do just that. “And tell us what made you come to us today.”

 

_Today marked a highly anticipated and also dreaded day for the young students of The History of the Jedi Order class in the Jedi Temple. After two weeks dedicated to preparation, their presentation day had arrived. Their assignment branched off from the previous homework where the students were asked to draw the Jedi Knight or Master the student most respected or admired. The instructor went through each student once their renderings were complete and asked each student to briefly explain their choice in Jedi. At the conclusion of their class, the students were assigned to go to the Archives and research what they could about their chosen Knight or Master to present information on that person to the class in two weeks time._

_What the students did not know at the time they worked on their drawings was that there existed a long-standing tradition in the Jedi Order where the Knights and Masters chosen by the students would be invited to listen to the Initiates’ presentations. The children only discovered this fact the class session immediately preceeding their presentation day._

_From the moment of that announcement, the nerves of the Initiates increased so drastically that the Force practically trembled with their anxiety. That anxiety carried them through to the time of their presentations. The theory of the instructors was that their nerves would inspire the Initiates to work harder and to put more effort into their work. For some of the Initiates, presentation days like these were their better chance of making an impression on a potential Master. Not every child excelled in the same tasks. Therefore, while the lightsaber tournaments showcased those Initiates talented in the skill of lightsaber combat and acrobatics, those tournaments did absolutely nothing for those students whose talents lay elsewhere._

_This was why Knights and Masters were encouraged to attend other types of demonstrations given by the Initiates, not just the lightsaber tournaments. An Initiate may struggle with lightsaber technique, but that did not make them worthless to the entire Jedi Order._

_On the day of the presentations for Depa Billaba’s class, she refused to look around for the Knight she would discuss to those in the large audience chamber. She calmed her mind, focused on her words, rehearsed the facts of her presentation in her head, and prepared to explain to everyone why she admired Master Windu above all others in the Order._

_Her presentation was personal, her information came from a primary source. Herself. Depa doubted that Master Windu remembered her as clearly as she remembered him. But that was precisely why she chose to do her presentation on him, to share their story, and to remind him that she had not forgotten him and that his actions were forever ingrained in her memory._

_But Master Windu did not attend the presentations._

_Not every Master or Knight had the ability to attend these discussions, especially if they were on mission outside of the Temple at the time. This was common knowledge to all Initiates taking the course. But Master Windu had been in residence at the Temple on the day of Depa Billaba’s presentation on him. Why had he not come? Depa knew that the instructor for the course notified all of the Knights and Masters being researched so that they could attend if able. Master Windu hadn’t come to hear her speak. Why had he not come?_

Depa, her breathing under control but her emotions still chaotic, stared at the Master seated before her. He stared back at her. No, he studied her, his concentration clear in his expression. She ducked her head and closed her eyes, determined to wrestle her emotions into tranquility as she’d been taught since her arrival at the Jedi Temple.

 

_“Wait here,” the protocol droid commanded._

_Depa looked around the waiting area. There were others seated waiting for their turn to speak with the Council. None paid her any attention and so she tried hard to stop theorizing what all of their reasons were for being there._ Focus! _She made her way to a cluster of chairs that no one else seemed to want to occupy. They were the ones with a direct view to the doors of the Council Chamber. It only made sense for her to sit there. Being closest to the doors meant that she would not keep the Council waiting once they summoned her before them._

_Even before she settled in her chair, her mind raced. What could she possibly say? “You’ve been my hero since I can remember!” As true as that might be, Depa determined she could never say that in front of the entire Council. Absolutely no way._

 

But then what else _could_ she say?

Depa, without raising her head more than absolutely necessary, peeked at the Master seated in front of her. She heard him sigh heavily and she deflated in disappointment in herself. “Look at me,” the Master ordered. Her eyes snapped upward and met his penetrating gaze. “Whatever you came here to tell us is important to you, otherwise you wouldn’t be here, Youngling.” She began to tremble where she stood.

“Frightening her, you are,” snapped Master Yoda disapprovingly.

“Forgive me, Master,” he said quickly.

“My forgiveness, you need not,” Yoda grumbled almost to himself.

The Master sighed again before he leaned forward in his chair. He took a deep breath. “Forgive me, child,” he said, his voice much gentler than a moment ago. “If you are not prepared to speak before us now, then it would be best for you to leave and come back another day with your Creche Master so that she may speak on your behalf.”

This was exactly what Depa wanted to avoid. “No, Master. That’s why I came by myself,” she blurted. As all of the Masters in her sight sat straighter in their chairs, Depa realized this was the most she’d said in this room so far. Her own surprise left her completely incapable of explaining that she’d asked her Creche Master to arrange for her to meet with the Council on her own, even though it was almost never done. When Depa had asked if an Initiate could see the Council, her Creche Master had thought for a long while before smiling at her and admitting, ‘I don’t see why not.’ Two days later, Depa received word that she had an appointment to see the Council…alone.

“There’s no need to be nervous,” another Master said, again trying to coax her to present her purpose for being there.

“I’m not nervous, Masters,” Depa insisted, then realized her mistake. She looked at Master Yoda, expecting to see disapproval in her lying to them. Instead, his neutral expression waited patiently for her to continue. “I just…I don’t know the words.”

“Then perhaps words are not the tool you need, Youngling,” the Master to Yoda’s left said. Depa stared at him. How could she say the words she couldn’t even say without actually using words?

 

_The metal cell chilled her to her very bones. Until her family had been taken, she had never known what it meant to feel like she would freeze to death. She had never known what it meant to feel like she would starve to death. Aboard that pirate vessel she quickly understood what both meant._

_Her mother and father had been taken from the cell one by one, leaving her behind to hear helplessly as they screamed in agony and begged for mercy until they were silenced. She’d buried her head further into her knees as she heard the cell door open, hoping they wouldn’t find her, hoping that she’d be unseen in the corner of the cell, and that they would leave her alone._

_“This one’s alive!” he shouted, stepping into the cell his footsteps approaching. There was a strange humming sound approaching with him. Then, she heard the sound of something powering down, but unlike anything she’d heard before. That strange sound caused her to peek through her bangs at him._

_She gasped and pressed herself further into the corner. This man wasn’t as old as some of the pirates that took her parents away from her, but he was more frightening because of the blood on his clothes. “No, no, Youngling, it’s okay,” he hurriedly said, reaching towards her. She cried out as his hand came at her. “I’m here to help you. You’ll be safe now.”_

_“No!” she shouted, scrambling away from him along the wall of the cell. “Trick me!” He huffed and then grabbed her arm. She shrieked and desperately tried to pull herself free. “No! Let go! No!”_

_Suddenly, with a snap-hiss and a burst of light, the room glowed purple._

_“Don’t move,” he told her. “I’m going to cut you free.” She stared at the beam of light as he brought it closer to her. That light barely touched the metal linking her wrists before it melted and her wrists were separated. Her mouth fell open in shock. “Now, this one,” he said, raising the beam of light to the length of chain keeping her attached to the cell wall. “Don’t move.” The humming light went behind her head. A moment later, the weight of the chain vanished. Her collar remained, but the weight was gone. “We’ll handle the rest later,” he said._

_“Are you a Jedi?” she asked, staring at the purple light in awe._

_He stared at her like the question surprised him. “Yes, I am.”_

_That was all Depa Billaba needed to know. She launched herself at him. He barely had time to hold his lightsaber out of the way before she threw her thin arms around his neck. “Thank you,” she wept into his bloody tunics._

Depa knew what she should do. With trembling, nervous hands, she wrestled an item from where she’d tucked it into her belt sash. Carefully, she unfolded the paper. Only then did she look up. She knew that all of the Council that could see the paper stared at it curiously. But it had only ever been meant for the eyes of one of them. Depa swallowed then rushed forward to the Master at Yoda’s left, and shoved the paper at him. As soon as he took it, she nearly tripped over her own feet in her hurry to leave the Council Chamber. But right at the doors she remembered that it would be unforgivably rude to just walk out. She spun awkwardly and quickly presented what she knew to be the worst bow she’d ever performed. Embarrassed enough for one day, Depa dashed out of the Council Chamber.

Mission accomplished, though not at all in the way she’d imagined.

 

_“Left your side, she has not?” the short-statured, green Jedi Master asked his teenaged apprentice._

_The boy tried to muster a glare but failed when he saw amusement shining in his Master’s eyes. He sighed as he turned his attention to the little girl, newly bathed and clothed, who had decided to curl up against his side and use his chest as a pillow. The original plan was to indulge her as she asked endless questions about the Jedi, but before he realized it the child had drifted off to sleep in the middle of one of his answers. She looked at peace for the first time since he found her. He didn’t want to disturb that. “No,” he answered softly. “She’s followed me everywhere.”_

_“Continue, she likely will, until find a home for her we do.”_

_He frowned. “About that, Master.” He trailed off as he carefully pulled a tiny datadisk from a pouch on his belt. Using a gentle touch of the Force, the apprentice floated it to the waiting, clawed hand of his Master. “While I cleaned her injuries, I snuck a blood sample,” he explained unnecessarily._

_“A home with us will she have?”_

_“Yes, Master.”_

_Master Yoda nodded, pocketing the datadisk to consult it later. “Then into the Order, welcomed she will be.” He turned and headed back out the door to leave his Padawan and his charge to sleep. “Bring her to the Creche, you will. Let go of her attachment to you, she will.” The hissing of the doors closing masked the rest of Yoda’s words, but his apprentice still heard them. “For a little while at least, that is.”_

_He looked down at the sleeping little girl, tightened his arm around her shoulders in a brief squeeze, then leaned his head back against the wall and prepared to wake up later with a sore neck._

 

The moment the doors shut behind the rapid departure of the Initiate, eleven members of the Council turned their gazes on their youngest Master who held the paper the Youngling shoved at him before she’d fled the chamber. Some of them smiled while others stared with open curiosity. He didn’t want to explain what just happened, but he knew these Masters would not let the matter drop until they had the information they wanted. He looked down at the paper in his hands. It was a drawing, a child’s drawing of a small girl holding the hand of a much taller boy as they walked through the halls of the Jedi Temple. She had dirt on her clothes, he had blood on his, but he held up his purple-bladed lightsaber to shield them both from harm. It wasn’t quite accurate, but then again memory seldom is accurate.

“Remember you, she does. Her respect, grew it did.” Yoda stated the obvious to him, but announced hints of the situation to everyone else. “Disappointed, she was that attend her class’s presentation you did not. Made sure to find you, she then did so that know you would that admire you she does.”

He smiled at the drawing, remembering the little girl he’d rescued that refused to leave his side. The little girl that had clung to his robes when he brought her to the Creche and told her she had to stay there. The little girl who obviously never forgot him. “She was brave for coming here alone.”

A deep chuckle overrode the murmurs of agreement from the other Masters. He looked up and saw Master Dooku trying to hold back a rare grin. “Well, Master Windu,” the elder Master began. “It appears we will need to elect a replacement for your seat.”

Mace Windu grimaced. He’d only recently been elected to the Council. How embarrassing to have such a brief tenure as a Council Member. He shook his head. “She’s a bit young to apprentice, Master—”

Dooku waved his hand dismissively. “Nonsense! I named Qui-Gon as my Padawan when he was only ten years old.”

Mace heard the argument but rejected it. “Jinn was an exception.” He nodded at the drawing. “She needs to learn some patience before I even consider her.”

Dooku opened his mouth to retort, but Yoda spoke first. “Refer to her actions in seeking you out, do you? Impatience, you see.” Yoda shook his head and pointed an emphasizing finger at his former Padawan. “Resourceful in solving her problem, I see.” The ancient Master pinned Mace with a stern look. “Impatient, Initiate Billaba is not! Clever, she is. A good Master for her you would be. A good Padawan for you she would be. A good match you are.”

Mace sighed in frustration. His former Master seemed determined in this. He saw no sympathy from his fellow Council Members. “I was just appointed!”

Yoda tapped his gimer stick lightly on the polished floor. “Here this position for you will be, when Knighted your Padawan is.” He glanced at Mace, mischief in his old eyes. “Yet, over-eager for a Padawan you must not seem. Courage she showed to come here, yes. Let that alone determine your choice, you should not. Study her skills, observe her talents, you will, while sit on the Council you still do.”

Mace nodded. “Then I will take my time with this.”

Yoda humphed in satisfaction, resettling himself in his chair. “Wait for you, she will. Time you both have.”

“Also, I think I speak for everyone here when I say that I highly doubt the girl will accept anyone else as her Master,” Dooku said, drawing the gazes of the rest of the Masters, who nodded in agreement, some smiling.

Mace smiled, slightly embarrassed and self-conscious. Most Masters had the privilege of choosing their apprentices. He’d already done things a little differently in his career to be appointed at so young an age to the Jedi Council. It only seemed fitting that it wasn’t he who chose his apprentice, but the apprentice who chose him. If Initiate Billaba showed this much determination just to give him this drawing and let him know she respected and admired him above all other Jedi, then Master Dooku was probably right. She wouldn’t accept anyone but Mace Windu as her Master.

As he smiled at the drawing of himself and the little girl he’d rescued, Mace promised himself that when Initiate Depa Billaba turned twelve, he would make their partnership official. In the meantime, he had much to learn about raising a Padawan to Knighthood.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know your thoughts on this by leaving a comment! Would love to hear from readers.


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